Krugman: Treasury Sec. bid 'bad idea'

1/7/13 10:35 AM EST

You may have missed it over the weekend, but folks ranging from The Guardian's Mark Weisbrot to actor Danny Glover are urging President Obama to name Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist, as Treasury Secretary.

"Part of the reason is that I am indeed the World’s Worst Administrator — and that does matter. Someone else can do the paperwork — but an administrative job requires making hiring and firing decisions, it means keeping track of many things, and that, to say the least, is not my forte," he writes on his blog today.

"Oh, and there’s not a chance that I would be confirmed," he writes. "But the main point, as I see it, is that it would mean taking me out of a quasi-official job that I believe I’m good at and putting me into one I’d be bad at."

In an editorial Saturday, Weisbrot said Krugman would be "tough to oppose on any substantive grounds" because of his Nobel Prize in economics, his popularity, and a history of being "right about the major problems facing our economy, where many other economists and much of the business press have been wrong."

"Most importantly, Krugman is on the side of the majority of Americans," Weisbrot wrote. "He has written extensively in favor of policies that favor job creation, explained the folly of budget cutting in the face of a weak economy, and opposes cuts to social security and Medicare benefits."

Glover's call came in an email to MoveOn.org supporters urging them to sign a petition for Krugman's nomination.

“We want President Obama to nominate Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, who opposes austerity and wants the government to focus on creating jobs," Glover wrote.

But Krugman believes he would have less influence as secretary.

"By my reckoning... an administration job, no matter how senior, would actually reduce my influence, leaving me unable to say publicly what I really think and all too probably finding myself unable to make headway in internal debates," he writes.

"So again, I’m flattered — but I think I should stay in my current position as Mr. Outside, an annoying if sympathetic voice they can’t ignore."